Pre Reading Discussion
It is vital that teachers and students participate in a pre read discussion. If teachers model this behaviour while doing guided reading and shared texts students will start to use this technique without realising it when reading independently. Encourage students to make a prediction about what the book might be about, will it be a story or information? Are there any words in the title you don't know? What is the picture showing us? What do we already know about the topic that might help us while reading the book?
It is important that after reading the story that the students predictions are revisited and evaluated. Students need to be able to assess if their predictions were correct or not.
A good pre reading discussion will help students access their prior knowledge and get engaged with the book.